The content, assignments, and assessments for College Success are aligned to the following learning outcomes. A full list of course learning outcomes can be viewed here: College Success Learning Outcomes.

Module 1: Motivating Success

• Personal Identity
  • Describe how personality tests and skills inventories help to evaluate career paths and identify personal interests to meet educational goals.
  • Describe the responsibilities of college student life and how they differ from high school or early career life
• Types of Students
  • Identify different categories of students as well as similarities and differences among students
  • Describe characteristics of successful students
• College Overview
  • Identify differences in class delivery and compare strategies for success in each type
  • Identify differences in types of classes within your degree plan, such as electives and core requirements
  • Explain how to access individual course policies and collegewide policies
  • Identify major college resources and how to use them when needed
• Defining Success
  • Develop a personal definition of success and explain how grades play a role in shaping success in college
  • Identify specific strategies to achieve college success during your freshman year

Module 2: Goal Setting and Time Management

• Defining Goals
  • Explain how time management plays a factor in goal setting, leading to short-term, medium-term, and long-term objectives
  • Identify overall academic goals
  • Identify and apply motivational strategies to support goal achievement
  • Describe how a social network can help accomplish goals
  • Consider factors that might hinder goal achievement and possible ways to address these issues
• Your Physical Environment
  • Analyze the impact of your surroundings while you study
  • Define distraction and multitasking, and describe how personal technology may help or hinder your study efforts
• Your Use of Times
  • Describe time management concerns in college and identify effective steps for proper time management
  • Compare time management styles and identify tips for success for each of the four time-management personality types
  • Evaluate techniques for creating an effective schedule
  • Identify procrastination behaviors and strategies to avoid them

Module 3: Career Exploration

• The Big Picture
  • Identify your motivations for attending college and consider what it means to be college and career ready
  • Examine the value, both financial and otherwise, of a college education
• Career Paths
  • Differentiate between “job” and “career”
  • Explain the five-step process for choosing a career, which includes aligning your personal interests and skills with appropriate fields
  • Identify sources for learning more about specific careers
• College Majors
  • List key strategies for selecting a college major
  • Identify the relationship between college majors and career paths (both why they matter and why they don’t)
  • Identify sources for learning more about specific majors and related careers
• Professional Skill Building
  • List specific skills that will be necessary for your career path
  • List transferable skills that will be valuable for any career path
  • Explain how to acquire necessary skills, both in and out of class, for your career goals
• Career Development
  • Describe the stages of career development, and identify the stage you’re currently in
  • Identify career development resources in your school, community, and beyond
• Networking
  • Define network and identify strategies for networking
  • Identify sources for developing professional networks
• Résumés and Cover Letters
  • Define the purpose and contents of a résumé
  • Identify characteristics of an effective résumé
  • Identify characteristics of an effective cover letter
• Interviewing
  • Describe effective strategies to prepare for an interview
  • Differentiate between different types of interview situations and identify appropriate interview techniques for each
  • Analyze different question types common in interviews

Module 4: Social Interaction and Diversity

• Socializing
  • Describe benefits of social interaction in college
  • Identify communication strategies for effective communication
  • Identify social conflicts and resolution strategies
• Diversity and Accessibility
  • Identify factors that define a diverse group
  • Explain the positive effects of diversity in an educational setting
  • Identify implications of accessibility on campus and in communities
• Campus and Student Life
  • Describe the variety of organized groups available on campus for both resident and nonresident students
  • Identify resources for learning more about campus organizations
  • Describe the benefits of participating in student life

Module 5: Thinking and Analysis

• Patterns of Thought
  • Identify different patterns of thought, such as those found in Bloom’s taxonomy
• Critical Thinking Skills
  • Describe the role that logic plays in critical thinking
  • Describe how critical thinking skills can be used to problem-solve
  • Describe how critical thinking skills can be used to evaluate information
  • Identify strategies for developing yourself as a critical thinker
• Creative Thinker Skills
  • Identify the value of creative thinking in education
  • Describe the role of creative thinking skills in problem-solving
• Thinking with Technology
  • Identify technology tools that enhance learning and the importance of technology in the student experience
  • Explain how technology skills relate to critical/creative thinking skills
  • Examine online learning in the context of organizing, communicating, reading, and researching online

Module 6: Learning Styles and Strategies

• The Learning Process
  • Identify the stages of the learning process
  • Define learning styles and multimodal learning
• Class Preparation
  • Identify effective mental and physical strategies to prepare for an individual class session
  • Describe typical ratios of in-class to out-of-class work per credit hour and how to effectively schedule your study time
• Class Attendance
  • Explain why regular class attendance is important
  • Identify strategies for obtaining content from a class you missed
  • Identify effective listening and participation strategies
  • Compare different note-taking strategies and assess which is most effective for you
  • Evaluate different teaching styles and how your personal learning style fit with each
• The Role of Memory
  • Describe strategies for deciding which course content to learn and retain
  • Differentiate between short-term and long-term memory, and describe the role of each in effective studying
  • Identify memory-strengthening strategies
• Active Learning
  • Recognize strategies that engage active learning in the classroom
  • Identify strategies to engage active learning outside the classroom

Module 7: Study Skills

• Reading Strategies
  • Identify common types of reading tasks assigned in a college class
  • Identify effective reading strategies for academic texts in a variety of formats
  • Identify vocabulary-building techniques to strengthen your reading comprehension
• Writing Strategies
  • Describe the purpose of writing assignments and what an instructor might expect to see from your writing
  • Identify how to approach common types of college writing tasks
  • Articulate writing-process steps for the development of academic writing, including revision and proofreading
  • Identify strategies for ethical use of sources in writing
• Testing Strategies
  • Identify strategies for preventing and controlling test anxiety
  • Identify common types of tests given in a college class and their purposes
  • Identify strategies for answering typical kinds of test questions
• Presentation Strategies
  • Identify common types of presentation tasks in a college class and their purposes
  • Identify techniques to avoid common pitfalls and reduce anxiety to deliver an effective presentation
• Quantitative Strategies
  • Describe how personal attitudes toward quantitative courses can impact success
  • Compare effective note-taking strategies for quantitative courses against those for other courses
  • Identify strategies for reading quantitative texts
  • Compare pre- and post-test-taking strategies for quantitative courses against those for other courses

Module 8: Beyond the Classroom

• Working with Instructors
  • Discuss the benefits of communicating with instructors
  • Evaluate effective communication strategies with instructors
  • Identify strategies for resolving conflicts with an instructor
• Deep Learning
  • Identify differences between passing a test and gaining knowledge (cramming versus learning)
  • Describe common myths about studying in order to explain study techniques that contribute to the long-term retention of knowledge
  • Explain how peer groups can aid in class preparation
• Academic Honesty
  • Define academic honesty and common forms of academic dishonesty
  • Identify strategies for avoiding plagiarism
• Evaluating Results
  • Identify the learning benefits of test taking
  • Identify strategies for learning from mistakes and from doing poorly on tests or exams

Module 9: Health Management

• Nutrition
  • Define healthy eating habits
  • Identify techniques for making healthy food choices, especially in college
• Exercise
  • Describe physical fitness and the major types of exercise
  • Identify the benefits of regular exercise, for both body and brain
• Sleep
  • Identify benefits of sleep for both physical and mental health
  • Identify ways to ensure good sleep habits and high-quality sleep, especially during periods of stress
• Substance Abuse
  • Define substance abuse and markers for substance abuse risk
  • Describe the effects of alcohol use and abuse on the body
  • Compare the effects of prescription and illegal drug use and abuse on the body
  • Identify resources for further information and guidance about substance abuse
• Stress
  • Identify sources and signs of stress, particularly for college students
  • List healthy ways of managing stress that fit your current lifestyle
• Mental Health
  • Describe mental health basics and strategies for improving mental health
  • Describe depression
  • Describe eating disorders
  • Describe anxiety disorders
  • Identify suicide warning signs and resources for further information about mental health issues
• Sexual Health
  • Describe types of sexually transmitted diseases and how to prevent STDs or unintended pregnancies
  • Identify risks of sexual assault, including date rape, and where to go for help
• Safety
  • Describe safety consciousness
  • Describe strategies for staying safe on campus and elsewhere

Module 10: Financial Management

• Finances in College
  • Identify sources of major and minor expenses in your life, including the cost of college
  • Identify sources of income in your life and how to set appropriate financial goals
  • Identify the potential sources of financial assistance and strategies for applying for financial aid and scholarships
• Working
  • Identify typical job categories for college students
  • Describe the pros and cons of working while in college
  • Identify employment resources on campus and in the community
• Saving
  • Identify personal spending hazards for college students
  • Define savings opportunities for college students
• Budgeting
  • Describe budgeting strategies and the pros and cons of budgeting
  • Identify the steps necessary to create a personal budget
• Credit
  • Describe the opportunities, risks, and rewards of owning a credit card
  • Define credit history and identify resources for assistance with credit issues

Module 11: Metaliteracy

• What Does it Mean to Be a Meta-literate Learner
  • Understand metaliteracy and its components
  • Apply principles of metaliteracy conscientiously to your learning
  • See oneself as a metaliterate learner
• Metaliteracy and Your Role as a Researcher
  • Determine how a source’s purpose, document type, and delivery mode affect its value for a particular situation
  • Verify expertise but acknowledge that experts do exist
  • Examine how you feel about the information presented and how this impacts your response
  • Consciously seek information from a spectrum of viewpoints and sources
• Your Role as an Information Producer and Collaborator
  • See oneself as a producer as well as a consumer of information
  • Participate conscientiously and ethically in collaborative environments
  • Ethically remix and repurpose openly-licensed content
• Your Life as a Metaliterate Digital Citizen
  • Recognize the impact that your searching and posting behaviors have on your online presence
  • Determine how authentic or how anonymous you want your online persona to be
• Being a Metaliterate Lifelong Learner
  • Value persistence, adaptability, and flexibility in lifelong learning
  • Recognize that learning is a process and that reflecting on errors or mistakes leads to new insights and discoveries
  • Apply metaliterate learning as a lifelong value and practice
  • Recognize that learners are also teachers and teach what you know or learn in collaborative settings